Spiritual Sounding Board – This is our place to gather and share in an open format. Feel free to join in the discussion.
This is your place to share your church struggles and concerns.
Let’s also use it as a time to encourage one another spiritually.
What have you found spiritually encouraging lately?
Do you have any special Bible verses to share, any YouTube songs that you have found uplifting?
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For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.[b]
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
“I will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals;
you will be disgraced no more.[c]
And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you.
I will save the weak and helpless ones;
I will bring together
those who were chased away.
I will give glory and fame to my former exiles,
wherever they have been mocked and shamed.
On that day I will gather you together
and bring you home again.
I will give you a good name, a name of distinction,
among all the nations of the earth,
as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Zephaniah 3:17-20
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photo credit: Meaghan Varela
Spiritual Sounding Board 
J.A. Such a beautiful song! Anchors my heart in peace on this gloomy Sunday.
when the pieces seem too shattered
to gather off the floor
and all that seems to matter
is that I can’t feel you anymore
is that I don’t feel you anymore
i need a reason to sing
i need reason to sing
i need to know that you’re still holding
the whole world in your hands
i need a reason to sing
when I’m overcome by fear
and I hate everything I know
if the waiting lasts forever
I’m afraid I might let go
Will there be a victory?
Will you sing it over me now?
Your peace is the melody
Will you sing it over me now?
i need a reason to sing
i need reason to sing
i need to know that you’re still holding
the whole world in your hands
that is a reason to sing
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Tried to find the lyrics that start at 4:00 minute mark. No luck.
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I am not in a place, at the moment, where I am singing to God that He is always good. And this quote from Eugene Peterson’s book “Leap over a Wall” gives me the grace to get to that place.
“”Lament is a bridge from life to death to life. A failure to lament is a failure to connect. If we refuse to learn Davidic lamentation, our lives fragment into episodes and anecdotes, a succession of jerky starts and gossipy cul-de-sacs. But we’re in a story in which everything eventually comes together, a narrative in which all the puzzling parts finally fit, about which years later we exclaim, ‘Oh, so that’s what that meant!’ But being in a story means that we mustn’t attempt to get ahead of the plot – skip the hard parts, erase the painful parts, detour the disappointments. Lament – making the most of our loss without getting bogged down in it – is a primary way of staying in the story. God is telling this story, remember. It’s a large, capacious story. He doesn’t look kindly on our editorial deletions. But he delights in our poetry.”
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Thank you, Gail, for posting the lyrics and for sharing.
I played a song at church today with the praise and worship team and it also had the words about God dancing over us and that picture just blows my mind – my heavenly Father is singing/dancing (I’ve seen both words in different translations) over me. Whoa!
You dance over me
While I am unaware
You sing all around
But I never hear the sound
Lord, I’m amazed by You
Lord, I’m amazed by You
Lord, I’m amazed by You
And how You love me
You paint the morning sky
With miracles in mind
My hope will always stand
For You hold me in Your hand
How deep, how wide
How great is Your love for me
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I love the lyrics: You dance over me while I am unaware. I need to keep that in my head this week. Maybe I will get a glimpse of that dance.
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The more we concentrate on Heavenly things, the less time we spend on ourselves.
You pain the morning sky, With miracles in mind…….Yesterday I went for a drive with a friend in her new jeep. FUN. It was a cool fall type day. The trees in the area we went to were just beginning to turn. Along the road ahead of up were 3 deer on the road far enough ahead that we could slow down and see the awesomeness of God’s creation. Maybe a half hour later on a different back road there were three turkey’s far enough ahead of us that we could slow down and watch them peacefully cross the road, a mother with her 2 new off spring. The things that God showed us along our journey showed us His Majesty. We were indeed, amazed by Him.
These things may have all been here on earth, but sent from Heaven. He brought peace to 2 women’s hearts. We are both divorced within this past year and not feeling 100% accepted by other Christians and I don’t expect we ever will be. But, God showed us acceptance through his awesome creation in many moments throughout the day.
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Posting a link here to a video we played at a friend’s memorial service on Aug. 28. My friend Kay died Aug. 12 after a two-year battle with cancer. I love the tree!
Thank you for the verses from Zephania. I’m a bit worn myself now, and it was good to see that.
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Gail aka Scared,
Just weeks before my world exploded, I heard someone speak on lamenting and it was so powerful that I wrote it down.
We live in a world that is not what God intended it to be. We live daily with a huge gap in life. The gap exists between life as it was intended to be–Eden–that place of perfection and sinlessness; and the world as it currently exists after the fall.
In order to survive, we must “mind the gap.” We do this through lament. We take our fears, pain, disease, rage and questions to God through lament. Lament is a form of worship–the Psalms and prophets are full of laments as well as the books of Job and Lamentations. When we pour out our laments to God, He is pleased with it. He does not take offense but rather sees it as our worship.
I believe that when we fail to lament life’s pain, we risk alienation from God. We feel betrayed or abandoned; confused about the pain and angry. Why doesn’t God make it stop? Where was He when we were hurt? How could a loving God allow such evil to exist?
Lament changes that–we take the rawness of our pain directly to him and instead of rejecting or lecturing us, He opens His arms and receives us with joy. Joy not at our pain but at our willingness to present it to Him. And in lamenting, we are rightly reminded of the gap. We gain perspective; and we focus on the hope we have when all will be made right, when we will live in Eden again.
I’m sorry this is a difficult time but know that it came to pass, not to stay. Engage in the work of lament during this season because this is your worship.
Hugs and prayers,
Brenda
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TLC,
I am so sorry that you lost your friend Kay. I didn’t watch the video till this morning, so glad that I did, it was a gift. I love the tree too.
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“Engage in the work of lament during this season because this is your worship.”
Brenda,
Soaking in what you said, thank-you for taking the time to share. Hugs to you.
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Boz Tchividjian hits it out of the ballpark! Him taking the time to publicly address this issue is something I find very encouraging. I hope Jeff Crippen picks up on it.
http://boz.religionnews.com/2014/09/12/whyistayed-churches-support-spousal-abuse/
I would love it if the PCA came out with a resolution and study committee on dealing with all types of abuse.
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Brenda, thank you for your words on lament. What a great word. Do many churches deal with this subject?? The idea that Iamenting is a form of worship blew my world apart!! (In a good way). In my regional and church culture people give lip service acknowledging inner pain, but “joy” seems to be the go to word to avoid dealing with human suffering. There are many ways of suffering loss (death, divorce, loss of job, crisis of faith, etc) which can open up a world of pain and questioning. I believe God honors that. Some people are very uncomfortable with the questions and fall back on, “Don’t let Satan steal your joy.” Or “I don’t want you to be bitter”. Or “You don’t want to ruin your witness”.
Why can they not see that their unwillingness to sit with someone who is suffering and just listen to the pain and questioning is a tremendous stumbling block for those who cry out to God? Sometimes there is no ready answer to the big question of, “WHY?” But the willingness to stand by one who suffers is one of the greatest evidence of God and His love and mercy.
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Brenda,
thank you so much for the comment on lamenting. I could not agree more. One reason Christians do not understand this is because we have lost sight of the Jewishness of our Savior. Lamenting is healthy if done appropriately. The Jews sit Shiva to mourn death. In scriptures they tore their clothes and cried. It is not only a form of grief but honoring to the person who died. Jesus wept at the grief displayed over his friend Lazarus. He was weeping over hurting people mourning him even though He knew He was going to bring him back.
Jesus Christ tells us to weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
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Brenda: just came back to check this and saw your comment on lament. It was so wonderful that I shared it on my Facebook. Thank you for pouring out this grace and mercy.
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